During recent years, airline/maritime travel and recreational activities over water have increased in record numbers, both commercially and privately, as well as in the military. A direct consequence of increased travel and recreational activities over large bodies of water, such as oceans and lakes, has been a proportional increase in the number of maritime accidents that often result in persons stranded on the grand expanse of the water surface. Very few of these people are successfully rescued due to the difficulty in locating their bodies on the open ocean in daylight hours, let alone at night in which most rescue efforts are called off. A similar situation exists for persons lost over land from travel or recreational activities. More specifically on the military application level, fighter pilots are commonly injured during ejection seat extraction episodes, but nevertheless need to provide a visual distress signal to be located and recovered.
Up until now there have been three major features lacking in the “state of the art” emergency locating devices for persons lost at sea: (1) a device which is automatically deployed and sustained for an indefinite time; (2) a device which can be located from great altitudes and distances during both daylight and nighttime hours; and (3) an inexpensive simple device which can be supplied to all overseas travelers, enthusiasts, and military personnel.
The present invention increases the likelihood of locating individual persons, life rafts, or boats afloat at sea in an inexpensive, continuous manner, during both day and nighttime hours, thus making the common traveler, worker, water enthusiast, or military personnel more relaxed when separated from land (or when in desolate land areas).